Franca and Doucouré

Painter said:
Doucoure ruptured his achilles tendon in November 2023 and has never retained full fitness since, having knee surgery in January 2025. He has played a total of about 620 minutes since November 2023.
Is he fit enough now to the physicality of the Premier League, time will tell. He has been missed, he was a key player before his injury problems.
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And is he going to remain injury-free?

Even if his achilleas and knee are 100% now (and they may well be) how will the rest of his body cope with getting back into the action after so long? Often, players pick up more and more other, unrelated problems in such circumstances.

He may be one of those who would technically pass a medical in terms of the two big injuries, and I do not doubt he has kept himself as fit as possible over the last couple of years, but in truth only time and games will tell if he can get back to where he was.

Fingers crossed.
 
Re Doucoure, without spending half my day researching I am convinced that there must be lots of players that have come back after these injuries and so as many have sadi, it is surely about if he can regain the sharpness, and willingness, to compete. Obviosly I have no idea what system Mr Sage is going to use (hopefully flexible depending upon match situation) but working on the principle of "class is foreever", then he has to have a role. As for Franca, yes he seems to have filled out and have more confidence but he perfoamces back in Brazil were terrible, apparantly. His finishing in the friendlies has been about on par with the general standard over the past 2 seasons i.e erratic at best. Other Brazilian forwards in the EPL have blown hot & cold, example the Bournemouth player who's name i have forgotten, Silvinho etc. so who knows if he'll be ok. I can't see the point of a loan though, for what? Given the lack of even the most unlikely rumour on the attacking front, the impleid approach seems to be that Sage will be adding the two to the squad.
 
If anyone would surely benefit from going out on loan it’s Doucoure and Celtic are desperate for players. He could stroll through most games up there while benefiting from regular football.
 
Franca....apart from 45 fairly unimpressive minutes at Bromley, I haven't seen enough of him recently to pass judgement. Got the hattrick v. Swindon of course, but let's see how he gets on against stiffer opposition.

Doucoure is a tough one. It could turn out that he's unable to get match fit/sharp enough to get a starting place. Indeed I would be most surprised if he did. That leaves him getting minutes here and there and maybe starting Carabao Cup games and the like. So a loan would benefit him if it means regular football - but that leaves Palace short in numbers if Esse, Ozoh and Devenney all ( or even some ) of them leave.
 
JessieJ said:
Re Doucoure, without spending half my day researching I am convinced that there must be lots of players that have come back after these injuries and so as many have sadi, it is surely about if he can regain the sharpness, and willingness, to compete. Obviosly I have no idea what system Mr Sage is going to use (hopefully flexible depending upon match situation) but working on the principle of "class is foreever", then he has to have a role. As for Franca, yes he seems to have filled out and have more confidence but he perfoamces back in Brazil were terrible, apparantly. His finishing in the friendlies has been about on par with the general standard over the past 2 seasons i.e erratic at best. Other Brazilian forwards in the EPL have blown hot & cold, example the Bournemouth player who's name i have forgotten, Silvinho etc. so who knows if he'll be ok. I can't see the point of a loan though, for what? Given the lack of even the most unlikely rumour on the attacking front, the impleid approach seems to be that Sage will be adding the two to the squad.
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the obvious example, as has already been mentioned, is our own John Salako. Did his UCL in 91 when he had just got in the England team. I think he may have had a dead person tendon re-used as part of the operation.
He came back a year later and did well. Got back in an England squad where he re-did the same knee.

He did come back slowly over a year later but lost a yard of pace. Still had a decent career afterwards if not quite at the level he would have achieved and was sold for decent money so clearly medicals etc were not an issue.
 
NEILLO said:
Franca....apart from 45 fairly unimpressive minutes at Bromley, I haven't seen enough of him recently to pass judgement. Got the hattrick v. Swindon of course, but let's see how he gets on against stiffer opposition.

Doucoure is a tough one. It could turn out that he's unable to get match fit/sharp enough to get a starting place. Indeed I would be most surprised if he did. That leaves him getting minutes here and there and maybe starting Carabao Cup games and the like. So a loan would benefit him if it means regular football - but that leaves Palace short in numbers if Esse, Ozoh and Devenney all ( or even some ) of them leave.
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Agreed. Doucoure and Palace, IMO, are best served if he stays and gets minutes off the bench regularly and plays in the cup games. Once the Europa League starts, Sage will need to manage players' minutes so as to avoid the meltdown we suffered last season. This could see Doucoure starting some League and Europa League games.
 
Doucoure was back in training 6 weeks before the end of the season but the Club took the decision not to include him in the first team squad until pre-season to help full recovery. He did appear for the U-21s during this time but their season ended early and so he joined the squad as support to the seasons end and in Leipzig.

Players with leg injuries continue with gym work to improve upper body strength as well as their physiotherapy and there should be no problems with that. All that remains is that he gets game time to improve his match fitness.
 
Save Dwindlehurst said:
Doucoure had his knee injury in Jan of last year so nowhere near 3 years out. Plenty of players have come back from similar lay offs in the past.
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Goal machine is correct to point to the Luton game as the root of the problem. Doucoure has hardly played for three years. I think he was an excellent player, so obviously, it would be just like signing a new player if he can make a full recovery.
 
Hope Im wrong but not sure Franca is going to produce the goods for us (pricey transfer too), there is more chance that Doucoure will get back to where he was, a very good midfielder.
 
The following excerpt from The Athletic should dampen expectations that Doucoure will be back to his best this side of Christmas or even this season.

"
“There’s no reason he can’t get back to the level (of 2022-23), but he’s going to need time, a good period of training and a good block of matches,” Luke Anthony, clinical director at GoPerform and a former head of sports medicine at EFL club Reading and injury prevention specialist at Norwich, tells The Athletic.

“That won’t come in 10 or 20 games. It’s probably going to take at least half a season of being consistent. He’ll be more prone to picking up something else, even if it’s a minor thing.

“Both of those are surmountable injuries. The problem is when you have recurrent time loss, you lose a bit of robustness to your body.

“It’s about playing minutes somewhere. The first thing is building up a solid base of training and then minutes. If you’re not a starter, it’s hard because you’re coming on as a sub, then you lose structure to your week. You’re doing the same as starters, you have to prepare, but you’re constantly behind it because you’re not exposed to the same level of load.

“The actual injury can take a bit out of you and take a little bit off your performance. You miss training time as well. At his age, he will still be developing. It’s not just matches — training time is part of the development and injuries have robbed him of a lot of that development. So he hasn’t had the years of training, the technical and strength and conditioning and playing that he otherwise would have.

“It’s about consistency and time to develop robustness to become able to tolerate the forces on your body of playing high-level Premier League and European football. That will be the key part for him.” "

So, will he be loaned out to get regular minutes to speed things up?
 
Norbury Old Git said:
Doucoure was back in training 6 weeks before the end of the season but the Club took the decision not to include him in the first team squad until pre-season to help full recovery. He did appear for the U-21s during this time but their season ended early and so he joined the squad as support to the seasons end and in Leipzig.

Players with leg injuries continue with gym work to improve upper body strength as well as their physiotherapy and there should be no problems with that. All that remains is that he gets game time to improve his match fitness.
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He wasn't included in any 1st team squad lists so couldn't be picked regardless
 
I've seen more of Franca in the last couple of weeks than in all of the rest of his time at Palace.
He's scored 4 goals and had plenty of minutes pre season, albeit against relatively minor opposition.

To be honest I still don't know what to make of him.

Perhaps it's to do with inflated expectations about him being the next superstar.
There has been little in the way of outstanding footwork, clever dribbles or flashes of brilliance.
He works hard, is up for the battle and willing to have a shot at goal.
And that's about it.

Perhaps there is more to come and at the moment it's a case of demonstrating that he can stay fit.
 
eritheagle said:
When we were about to sign frança tim vickery spoke about him on talksport. He described him as having a playing style close to debruyne bit did warn that he very much blows hot and cold and didn't start much for his previous club.
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If he was a "De Bruyne type" when we bought him, he has become a "Lukaku type" since his loan to Vasco da Gama.

This is for the better it would seem.
 
I see your França and Doucouré, and I raise you Nketiah and Tomiyasu.

2026/27 Palace is going to be the resurrectionist season.
 
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